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Whales

Mr. Dr. Greg Bole rejoins Joe, Toren, and Kevin to talk about the marine mammals called whales. We’ll play “Whale or No Such Thing”, talk about exploding whale autopsies, the story of the real-life inspiration for Moby Dick: “The Essex”, “Blackfish” and Tillicum’s attacks, plus a dramatic reading on whale penis fashion from Moby Dick.

Music: “The Dying Sailor to his Shipmates” by Paul Clayton

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13 Responses

  1. Excellent as always.

    One thing you didn’t mention for ambergris is that it’s still used as a fixative in high end perfumes. It’s CRAZY expensive (like $500~ or more per gram of high % extract), but it smells incredibly wonderful. Like a mild, sugary cereal grain mixed with a bit of dirt.

    I don’t know why anyone would use it in food, it doesn’t smell like much of anything unless you’ve converted it into an extract from my experience.

    I wish my poo was worth that much 🙁

  2. Man, that bit about the eye, that really left me in no doubt that humans really are awful. Ugh! Gladwe don’t do that to them any more… Oh, wait. Dang.

    I did find some “In the News” for you though: a dolphin ran in a surfer down under the other day. Experts said it was like the guy being hit by a motorbike! http://ab.co/1cTXJjq

  3. There’s an excellant 2005 doco called ‘Killers of Eden’ about the New South Wales whaling town where the local orcas would herd passing whales into the bay for the humans to harpoon, then share the meat. Then some visiting idiot shot one of the orcas, and the pod never came back.

  4. I know the Moby Dick guffaws are a tad too easy, but in the transcript of this podcast, please help me spot the missed opportunities:

    “…when she was pointing at Moby’s suddenly visible penis… and it was a big one, it’s a whale… but they quickly realized that Moby Doll was in fact a he, not a she.”

    “More like Moby Don”

    “Moby Dong”

  5. Moby Dick is one of the best books I have ever read. A sprawling monstrous modern epic, etc. I don’t know anyone that shares my opinion.

  7. I thought Joe was a big fan of Adventure Time. The creates of that show also created an online short episode series Bravest Warrior. The heroes space ship in that show appears as some sort of orca.

    Love your show! New listener.

  10. As I’m listening to this episode again while falling asleep, when I got to the bit about replacing Sharknado with whale vomit and explosions (if I heard that right), I immediately thought of the best pun ever: Torwhaledo. New movie idea. Boom. You’re welcome.